The present invention relates generally to an industrial automation system including software that is used to collect data, to monitor devices within an industrial environment and to trend characteristics of devices within an industrial environment for monitoring and/or controlling the industrial environment or control structure. More specifically, the present invention relates to automatically generating an application of a defined process for a control system.
Designing an automation control system requires input from several areas. At a minimum, the process engineer and control engineer must coordinate their efforts to obtain a workable control system. Most tools used to develop process control systems today are programming tools that are used by application software specialists. A problem associated with such an approach is that process engineers find it difficult to utilize the application software and to determine if it matches their needs. Also, the process engineers usually have to develop requirement specifications for the application software specialist because the application software specialist does not identify with a process requirement that defines Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), nor is the software specialist familiar with Pipe work and Instrument Drawings (PandIDs).
Typically, the process engineer designs a process for the control system. The control engineer works from the process design to create an application for the control system. However, because the process and control engineer have a different perspective of the automation control system, the final output, i.e., application, of the control engineer does not necessarily correlate to the process initially designed by the process engineer. Augmenting this inherent problem is the implementation of two programming environments for control and human-machine interface. Thus, the programming tools used for each area may not include aspects of the other""s area. Furthermore, design tools implemented by process and control engineers do not necessarily cooperate well with each other.
Inefficiency results because the respective data bases of the process and control domain areas are not integrated. Information is scattered in different files and tools. Data entry is often duplicated because of the non-integrated databases. A large amount of trouble shooting is further required by those individuals involved with creating the automated control system. Presently, there is not a tool capable of designing an automation control system that simultaneously incorporates the control and HMI aspects of a process control system.
The present invention is provided to solve these and other problems.
The present invention allows a user to save a great amount of time in creating a control/monitoring application. The invention simultaneously and automatically generates an application for a control system incorporating the various aspects of the control system, i.e., controllers, human-machine interfaces (HMI), diagnostics, and others; from a process design. A user inputs the process design and definitions into an application generator, e.g., one-step generator (OSG), and an application for the control system is generated from this input. U.S. Patent Application entitled, xe2x80x9cScanner for a Control System with Peer Determination,xe2x80x9d Serial No. 09/224,196, filed Dec. 30, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,511), is an example of a control system capable of having its application program generated by the present invention.
One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method of generating an application for a control system. The method comprises providing a single entity device representing at least one process object, the device comprises a supervisory aspect and a control aspect of the device. A physical model of the control process is defined. The physical model having a structure, the structure having a hierarchy of levels comprising at least one device. A topological model of the control process is also defined. The topological model having an architecture comprising a controller and a human-machine interface. The physical and topological models are analyzed. The physical and topological models are input into a generator and an application for the control system is generated. The generated application comprises a control aspect and a human-interface aspect.
Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to an apparatus for generating an application for a control system wherein a control process is defined as a physical model and a topological model. The apparatus comprises an analyzer for examining the physical model and the topological model to ensure operable cooperation between the physical and topological models; and, a generator for receiving the physical model and the topological model. The models are input into the generator wherein the application is to be generated and executed on the control system.
A further embodiment of the present invention is directed to an application constructed from a process object or smart control device (SCD) specification and maintenance database and an application generator. The SCD is a multi-facet object that can be controlled, operated, documented, monitored, viewed, diagnosed, etc. The SCD specification provides the definition and maintenance of control objects to be used in the automation system. The SCDs within the database are not limited to one particular manufacturer or type. The application generator builds the application from a user""s process design utilizing the control objects. The user selects a type and quantity of device from an SCD library that will be integrated within the control system. After the SCDs have been defined in the application generator, an application is generated for the control system, i.e., controller logic, HMI, communication throughout the system.
Yet a further embodiment of the present invention is directed to a functional tool that can be used by the process engineer, or by an engineer familiar with process standards. Consequently the standards which will be used will comply with:
xc2xa788.01 standard for Batch Control, to the terminology relevant to continuous process control
either standard and/or user defined process devices as specified in this document
either standard and/or user defined naming and tagging convention as specified in this document
good automation manufacturing practices (GAMP) standard for application engineering
either standard and/or user defined graphic and color convention as defined in this document.
A further embodiment of the present invention is directed to a methodology for the design of process objects to be applied to automation tasks involving numerous networked PLCs and Supervisory HMI workstations. From the process design, a generator will generate the code for the PLC logic, i.e., Concept projects, and the supervisory system, i.e., HMI applications. The present invention can be implemented as a single, integrated tool, which will allow the user to better analyze and understand his process needs and to develop process objects specific to these needs. The process objects encapsulate the principle parts of an automated machine in objects. The encapsulated devices are all objects. Once created, these objects can be reused as modular building blocks. The process objects will generally reside in the PLC and will include all attributes and variables associated with each object, including those currently used by the HMI e.g. graphic representation. Using predefined libraries of standard process objects, significant programming productivity and code standardization benefits can be realized. The present invention is designed to save time during the development of the application software because the application software will already have been defined, tested and proven process objects.